Afghanistan marks five years under Taliban rule as UN warns against normalization
Five years after the Taliban seized Kabul on 15 August 2021, Afghanistan faces a deepening humanitarian crisis, a gender apartheid against 20 million women, and growing pressure over EU-Taliban engagement on migration returns.
Five years of Taliban rule
On 15 August 2021, the Taliban entered Kabul and took control of Afghanistan as the US-backed government collapsed and President Ashraf Ghani fled to the United Arab Emirates. Five years later, the regime has consolidated power but remains internationally isolated, with Russia as the only country to formally recognize it. The Taliban have issued 264 decrees violating human rights, 166 of them targeting women and girls, affecting 20 million Afghan women across all aspects of life. Afghanistan is the only country in the world where girls and women are banned from secondary and higher education, with schooling prohibited for girls above 12 years old.
Humanitarian crisis
According to the UN, one in three people in Afghanistan (population: 45 million) needs food assistance, and nearly 3.7 million children under five are at risk of acute malnutrition this year. The healthcare system has collapsed, and the country faces what FIBGAR executive director Alessia Schiavon described as "one of the worst humanitarian and human rights crises in the world." Amnesty International, Entreculturas, and Mundo Cooperante have condemned the restrictions as a "system of institutionalized discrimination based on gender."
- Trump signs Doha Agreement with Taliban, setting framework for US troop withdrawal
- Taliban take Kabul; President Ashraf Ghani flees to UAE
- US withdrawal concludes after airport bombing kills 13 US troops and over 170 civilians
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth orders new Pentagon review of withdrawal
- Nearly 20 EU countries plus Norway write to Interior Commissioner Brunner on Afghan returns
- EU holds technical meeting with Taliban delegation in Brussels hotel
- UN Human Rights Council experts warn against normalizing Taliban authorities
- Fifth anniversary of Taliban takeover marked by humanitarian crisis and international isolation
Women's lives under gender apartheid
UN experts have labeled the regime's treatment of women a "gender apartheid." Roya, a 23-year-old woman in Kabul province, described her daily life to LaVanguardia. She needs a VPN to access Instagram, cannot visit parks or gyms, and spends her days washing clothes and sweeping. She played football on a women's team before the takeover; her red jersey still hangs on her door.
When you want to get out of a well of depression, you do things that give you joy, but my country no longer lets me do any of that.
Kiwan Rad, now 16 and living in Spain, was 11 when the Taliban took Kabul. She attended clandestine classes in English and mathematics while her family was in hiding. She had dreamed of becoming a lawyer.
Internal divisions and international engagement
The Taliban regime is not monolithic. A power struggle pits the Kandahar clerical core led by emir Hibatullah Akhundzada against the Kabul center associated with Sirajuddin Haqqani, who controls the Interior ministry. Akhundzada concentrates religious authority and increasing centralization, while Haqqani represents a faction linked to security and state management with greater political flexibility.
On 23 June 2026, the European Commission held a "technical meeting" in a Brussels hotel with a five-member Taliban delegation led by Foreign Affairs spokesperson Abdul Qahar Balkhi, who required a single-day visa to enter Belgium. The meeting, aimed at facilitating the return of Afghans residing irregularly in the EU, drew criticism from the European Parliament and human rights organizations. Nearly 20 EU countries plus Norway had sent a letter in October 2025 to Interior Commissioner Magnus Brunner urging priority returns of Afghans deemed threats to public order.
- Total decrees violating human rights
- 264 decrees
- Decrees targeting women and girls
- 166 decrees
UN experts warned on 13 August against normalizing the Taliban.
It is premature to invite Taliban representatives to capitals or accept their diplomats. This amounts to de facto recognition and reflects a double standard: on the one hand, human rights are defended, while on the other, one yields to domestic politics.
The shadow of withdrawal
The US withdrawal concluded on 30 August 2021 after a Taliban offensive that collapsed the US-trained Afghan government in weeks. According to BBC estimates, the Taliban controlled nearly the entire country in about ten days. A bombing at Kabul airport killed 13 US service members and over 170 civilians. Over two decades of war, more than 2,400 US soldiers died. The Biden administration (2021-2025) had promised Kabul would not become "another Saigon." In May 2025, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered a new Pentagon review of the withdrawal. Trump, who signed the Doha Agreement with the Taliban in 2020 during his first term (2017-2021), has used the withdrawal as a political weapon against his predecessor.
